What The Dead Space Remake Does Better Than The Original

One of the original game's most memorable quirks is Isaac Clarke's complete lack of a voice. In a wide cast of well-voiced and well-written characters, the game's primary vehicle for the player remains mute for the whole enthralling adventure. Later in the franchise, starting with "Dead Space 2," Isaac was voiced by Gunner Wright, the voice actor who has stuck with the role ever since.

Isaac's lack of a voice in the original "Dead Space" corresponds to a slight lack of characterization for the game's protagonist. A core tenant of the development of "Dead Space" was total immersion — all parts of the UI are on-screen, no fast-traveling, etc (per IGN). This immersion-first approach worked well, but Isaac's lack of a voice stuck out like a sore thumb.

Therefore, perhaps the most glaring difference between the two games is how playing Isaac Clarke feels. The original game made Isaac feel robotic, like he was just a vessel for taking orders and carrying the player around. The remake, however, gives more life to Isaac's qualities of leadership, determination, selflessness, fear, and regret through Gunner Wright's performance of the remade script. All in all, Isaac is a far more layered and sympathetic character in the remake due to his character adding to the immersion rather than subtracting from it.

For all the genius of "Dead Space's" gameplay mechanics, like its unforgettable dismemberment system, the original game had some rather clunky elements that have aged poorly. In particular, the Zero-Gravity experiences in the original game had notoriously clunky controls and a general lack of purpose and immersion that frustrated many players. The team at EA Motive recognized this and improved the Zero-G gameplay components massively by fine tuning its controls with propulsion boosters while also giving the player more agency to use and explore the Zero-G areas (per EA).

Another clunky element of the original "Dead Space" was its underutilization of the oxygen mechanic. The vacuum space areas where oxygen was depleted from Isaac's suit were few and far between, and recharging Isaac's suit with oxygen proved to not be a challenge. The remake, however, introduces Circuit Breakers into the game, which force players to choose whether they want to supply light or oxygen to rooms they are entering. Thus, upgrades to Isaac's suit regarding its oxygen capacity are no longer relatively useless due to the circuit breakers.

Lastly, the "Dead Space" remake upgraded weaponry by expanding their upgrade paths. There really wasn't a lack of diverse weaponry in the game, but having even more fun options certainly does not hurt. Overall, the raw mechanical gameplay of the "Dead Space" remake greatly improved.

Necromorphs in the original "Dead Space" game are some of the most horrifying video game monsters to ever grace the screen. Their fast, unrelenting, and viscous nature is well-established at the very start of the game with Chen and Johnson's deaths, as well as with this memorable elevator escape scene. And taking out these iconic baddies was done with perhaps the most innovative mechanic of "Dead Space:" dismemberment.

The first weapon that Isaac receives is the Plasma Cutter, and it remains a trusty weapon throughout the entire game because it is designed around the dismemberment system. The uber-fast and bounding physique of Necromorphs needed countering somehow, and shooting off their limbs turned out to be the solution. Once a Necromorph was relieved of its limbs at the joints it becomes much less threatening to the point where the player can comfortably choose their method of execution.

The "Dead Space" remake takes this amazing system and improves upon it further by adding a "peeling system," a fancy term for saying that each Necromorph now has multiple layers of flesh and bone required for dismemberment. So, instead of giving Necromorphs a conventional HP bar, the peeling system is intended to give players a dynamic reading of how much damage they are doing based on how much they have "peeled" the Necromorph. Therefore, the impressive visuals of dismemberment are married with gameplay mechanics and decision-making like never before.

A major consideration for the team at EA Motive with the "Dead Space" remake was how to reimagine the USG Ishimura. In a dev blog, associate Art Direction Roy Tuazon said that, "The Ishimura is an iconic ship because it was treat like a main character ... [The original team] did an amazing job keeping the player immersed in the ship, and left us wanting to see more." This same love and attention certainly went into the remake because the USG Ishimura is more immersive than ever.

Basic improvements like upsizing or downsizing corridors, or connecting previously unconnected hallways, makes navigating the remade USG Ishimura a more intuitive task, as opposed to the labyrinthine feel of the original game (per EA). Roy Tuazon further explained that, "We didn't just add things to add them. Everything we did, we did because it made sense, because it fit."

Other great fits to games immersion within the USG Ishimura is the complete removal of loading screens. This required some high-end engine capabilities from Frostbite in order to stream-in dynamic data that changes the ship according to the player's progression without loading screens. And another welcome change is the 3D maps of the original game being turned into more readable 2D maps (per Inverse). All in all, "Dead Space's" immersion, one of its most important qualities, is greatly improved by these additions.

The main campaign of "Dead Space" reportedly takes around 10 hours to complete, and the entire game takes around 15-20 hours to complete. While that is not the longest RPG, it still isn't a game with a quick playthrough — especially for players experiencing the game for the first time.

Almost all the same main story elements are used in the "Dead Space" remake, including the ending, but the remake adds in an additional alternate ending that is only obtainable on a New Game Plus playthrough. New Game Plus is a mode where players restart the campaign after completing it while retaining their credits, gear, and all their upgrades.

The game's difficulty is raised in New Game Plus and 12 exclusive collectible items are also added. Collecting those 12 Marker Fragments is what ultimately unlocks the alternate ending in the "Dead Space" remake. Therefore, only players who have beaten the game twice are capable of earning the alternate ending which hints at a "Dead Space 2" remake (per SVG).

Without a doubt, "Dead Space" is an intense game. Its core monster, Necromorphs, are mutated humans with nightmarish appearances that are often best dealt with through dismemberment. Thus, "Dead Space" is put into that category of "hard to convince a parent to buy it" for younger people.

The body horror, gore, and visceral dismemberment system that makes "Dead Space" such an iconic piece of the survival horror genre can be off-putting to enjoyers of less gruesome horror. As a result, the "Dead Space" remake offers two new settings for players who do not wish to experience the over-the-top gore of the game (via PC Gamer).

First, developers added a setting that enables content warnings before particularly gruesome cutscenes and events. And second, the game now includes a setting that blurs the whole screen during those intense moments. Escaping the brutality of "Dead Space" is challenging because the entire game is coated in violence, but these additional options will hopefully go a long way improving the accessibility of the "Dead Space" experience.